Tumblr Universe: Part 2

Jürgen Habermas describes the “public sphere” as a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens. A portion of the public sphere comes into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to form a public body.

The combination of people communicating behind their phone or computer and the one movement of clicking and re-blogging an image is what keeps up their Tumblr page. Given the rapid pace of adoption, there hasn’t been time to consider the privacy challenges raised by those who use the site.

To get a taste of privacy and what affect the public sphere has on how and what we use on our devices, I decided to interview a female Wollongong university student. The interview was conducted to process the information from the previous post that informed readers on what Tumblr is, how privacy is detrimental, and how public blogs are becoming more private.

The confusion of what Tumblr is, is something that often puts the public off from using it. Learning how to re-blog, follow, and heart posts is something that takes time, but by the time you’ve learnt; the effort to edit your own blog theme is what essentially begins to keep you up at night.

So even after putting all this effort in, why do we still hide our Tumblr identity?

Keep in touch for the next interview for either an interview that undermines this idea or one that defends this idea that Tumblr has become something that users keep private from the public.